How Far We've Come
by Mamori Kami
Summary: Sasori hates Deidara's guts. Though as time moves on, he ultimately questions his beliefs. And is led to a horrible decision...Kill himself, or kill Deidara...


**How Far We've Come**

_**Chapter 1-**Unexpected Bombing_

_"..."_**means thoughts**

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There were many things Sasori hated. Rust that got on Hiruko's tail when he forgot to oil it, Hidan's excessive swearing, not to mention his insane rituals, and that orange mask wearing idiot, who can't seem to shut up once he started talking, just to name a few.

But none of the above could match his loathing when Pein showed him his new partner. First thought that ran through Sasori's head: "Oh great, I get a blonde brat for a partner, Akatsuki's already full of brats thank you very much." His next thought went something like this: "Is 'it' a female or male:_sigh_: doesn't matter for now, as long as "it" keeps its hands off my puppets."

And as life would have it, one of the things he hated most bounded through the room at that exact moment, to meet the poor blonde who'd been dragged here by Itachi. "OMG! Sasori-san! Sasori-san! Is that your new partner?! Uhm…is 'it' a girl or boy? Tobi is confused" All the while the blonde just stood there, afraid of what these "weirdos" would do if he so even breathed. Especially that redhead…

For some reason, the blonde felt more afraid towards him than that orange mask wearing kid. As Tobi was absent mindedly scratching his head, a small clay spider found its way up his arm, and landed on his head. "Tobi…you might want to check out that moving "thing" on your head…" Sasori said as he pointed to the spider on Tobi's head. Too late. A shout of "Katsu" was heard before the entire cave was shook to its foundation and everyone was found covered in a layer of black smoke. Except for one very unlucky person who unfortunately had their head on fire… "AAAAHHHH!!! Sasori-san!!! HELP ME!!! Tobi's head is on fire!! It burns!!!"

Sasori sighed as Tobi was seen running hysterically throughout the room, trying to put the flames out by rolling around on the dirt covered floor. "Here use this, I'm sure Zetsu wouldn't mind if you just borrow it." Just as Sasori handed Tobi the watering can, Zetsu materialized from the floor, scaring the crap out of Sasori while he was walking towards Tobi.

"What the fuck!!! ZETSU!!! Where'd you come from?!" The plantman said nothing as he walked past the shocked Sasori to the unfortunate Tobi, who was still trying to put out the flames that blazed on his head. "Would you please give me back my watering can Tobi?" Tobi obediently listened and handed back Zetsu his watering can when he finished extinguishing the fire on his now burnt head.

Sasori saw the plantman take his leave as he tried so very hard to calm down his rapidly beating heart. _Damn Zetsu…popping out of nowhere like that. He's lucky I'm a puppet and the fact that I can't be scared to death…_ Sasori thought to himself.

Seeing that the little fireworks show distracted the other members sufficiently, the blonde sneaked himself out the door into the endless maze of hallways. Not soon after, the poor blonde got himself lost in the array of halls that seemed to go on forever.

Just as hope was almost gone, and things looked grim, the blonde ran head first into something fleshy. _Fleshy?_ the blonde thought. "You!!!" He said in a voice that could even faze the Leader himself if he was around, while pointing an accusing finger at the "wall" he just bumped into.

"Getting lost already?" Turns out blondie crashed into none other than the cold-hearted Uchiha prodigy himself. "If you're looking to kill me, don't, especially with that glare you're giving me right now." But apparently what he said meant nothing as it went in one ear and out the other.

For even the great Uchiha prodigy wouldn't be able to dodge the kick sent his way, if he didn't always have his Sharingan activated. "So blondie wants to play it that way ne? Don't say I didn't warn you." With that said, Itachi activated the jutsu feared by all, TSUKUYOMI.

_**-3 sec later- **_

The Uchiha prodigy walked away, leaving a passed out blonde behind him, for whatever poor soul would have to find and drag him back to his room.

_:stomach growling:_ "Ugh…Tobi is hungry…Tobi must find food before Tobi starves to death…" Tobi muttered to himself while making his way to the Akatsuki mess hall. He had to admit, cleaning himself off from that little "incident" wasn't easy, but still he was already growing quite fond of the the blonde, who literally exploded into the lives of the Akatsuki.

Tobi was just walking down one of the endless hallways, thinking about one of the many was to get the blonde to be his friend, when he tripped and fell flat on his face.

"AH! Gomenasai! Are you ok?" Tobi asked, picking himself up, while constantly poking the "thing" he just ran over. Said thing, didn't even move, when Tobi kept on poking it, he was just about to go call the others, thinking that whatever it was, was dead… The blonde shot straight up, slamming his head into Tobi's hand.

"Itai!" He screamed while swatting away Tobi's outstretched hand. "I can get up myself, un!" He tried to stand, but ended up tripping over his foot and landed on the floor in a tangled heap of limbs. Tobi continued to watch the unfurling comedy that was the blonde, before he decided to take him back up to the blonde's assigned room.

Tobi lifted him onto his back and began the long trek back up the stairs.

Surprisingly the blonde made no complaints on the way back. Tobi giggled a bit as he realized that the blonde had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He then as quietly as he could, turned the handle of the door and stepped inside.

The room was relatively empty except for two beds, a closet, and a simple dressing drawer in the back corner of the room. It didn't have all the accessories like the other rooms that were occupied by the various members of Akatsuki. Since the room had only held one member for the last few years, and said member never had an interest for these kinds of things, the room was kept bare, spare for some various puppets and their parts that were lying around.

Tobi turned around to leave, but not before walking over to the now sleeping blonde, and pulling the blankets over him. He then walked back towards the door, while whispering a barely heard "Sleep well, senpai." With that, he walked back downstairs to the kitchen, satisfied that he had at least helped a friend find his was in Akatsuki, even if it was only just a tiny bit.

_**-A Few Hours Later- **_

The blonde woke up to the sound of someone entering the room, only to find a tray of food and a glass of water left for him on the nightstand table._Was probably Tobi, who left the food here, since he's the only one who even remotely cares that I'm alive. _The blonde thought, taking a bite out of the lump of white stuff on his plate, which he figured was mashed potatoes, considering their rather bland taste.

Once he finished his plain meal of mashed potatoes and vegetables, he stood up and walked over to the room's entrance, putting the tray down outside the door, leaving it to be picked up by whoever was on kitchen duty that night.

He walked around aimlessly, wondering what the heck to do, seeing as whoever his supposed partner was, had absolutely no clue as to what "fun" is. Considering the way the room was decorated, the blonde could draw two conclusions, one: Whoever his partner was, he had in no way even close to knowing what "true art" was. And two: God, was this guy ever boring…in a creepy puppet-like way. Having all those half-puppet corpse things everywhere.

The blonde was seriously thinking of just running like the wind, and bolting out the lair's entrance, he REALLY did NOT want to find out who his partner was. Seeing all those dead corpses lying around on what he supposed was his partner's desk, really creeps him out. And the poor blonde did not want to stick around long enough to be made into one. Though there was one serious flaw to his plan, the cold-hearted bastard, known as Itachi. The blonde knew that before he even so much as put one foot out the door, the Uchiha would have him trapped in Tsukuyomi and leaving him passed out. Again.

Better not think about that. But what WAS there to think about? Absolutely nothing that is… The blonde was bored out of his skull and desperately needed something to occupy his time with.

While searching for something to keep him busy, he stumbles upon this REALLY weird looking puppet, near his partner's bed. _Ugh…this one's even uglier than that Kakuzu guy…And that's saying something un!_ he thought, examining the strange "shield" like thing on the back of the puppet.

The blonde spent another few moments of generally poking and prodding the giant puppet, before coming up with the insane idea to blow up the mass of metal and wood with one of his special clay bombs. "Hehe…hopefully my partner will get so mad from this, that he'll HAVE to throw me out, whether the Leader likes it or not" He said, while walking back to his own bed to grab the clay he needed to make that puppet explode.

Not such a good first impression, but the blonde was prepared to go to hell and back, just to get out of this prison. He never would've been in Akatsuki, if not for that bastard of a weasel, he'd be happily exploding various buildings back in his hometown of Iwagakure right now. Well…back to the present anyways.

The blonde quickly grabbed his clay from the pile of stuff on his bed and sat down to begin making his masterpiece. "This is going to be a true work of art, unlike that 'thing' my partner calls art." He said, making the final adjustments on his tiny clay bird.

"There! That should just about do it, un!" Watching as the miniature clay bird landed on the joint between the puppet and its huge scorpion-like tail, the blonde slowly got up. "Katsu!" And the puppet was blown apart into tiny splintered fragments of wood and metal, as the scorpion tail was seen flying across the room. The room was filled with black smoke for just a minute, before all of it drifted out through the open window above the bed.

"Now to find a suitable place to hide before that red-head storms through the door un…" He closed the closet door quietly as he sat down to prepare for the inevitable hurricane that was sure to come. Little did he know, it would come sooner than anyone would've thought.

Meanwhile, as the blonde sat patiently in the closet for Sasori to return, said member was already walking through the entrance to the Akatsuki lair. Sasori kicked off his sandals and made his way up to the dormitories, to get some rest. Even though he had only gone out for a walk to clear his mind of a certain blonde brat, that almost blew up the lair on hid first day, the puppeteer was still mentally tired from that "incident". As he reached the top of the stairs, Sasori reached out, turned the handle, pushed open the door and…

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO HIRUKO?!" Cursing whoever so dared to even touch it, let alone blow it up, the puppeteer stormed through the room, upturning anything and everything that was in the way of his quest, to slaughter whoever thought it was funny to ruin his favorite puppet.

"I know you're here, you insolent little brat!" _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all…_ The blonde thought, hugging his knees and scooting over to the farthest corner of the closet. Just incase the crazed red-head decided to throw open the closet door in rage, the blonde did not want it to connect with his face.

Scowling, Sasori continued searching the room with no luck as to finding the blonde. After looking everywhere that he could possibly think of, Sasori was just about to head downstairs for dinner, when he heard what sounded like a sneeze coming from the closet that he usually used to store various poisons in.

_Aha! Got you now, you little brat. Now you're going to pay._ Almost like a ghost, Sasori drifted over to the closet, ever so silent like the assassin that he was. Oh crap! He's probably going to turn me into a puppet now… Must've heard that sneeze…I knew I should've covered my mouth. Am I ever in deep shit now…I know! Soon as he opens that door, I'm going to sprint wherever, so long as I'm out of this horrible room un.

The blonde crouched, ready to run out the door like hell was after him, which in this case, really wasn't that much of an exaggeration. With a creak, Sasori opened the door to see a flash of blonde hair rush under his arm and across the room.

"Not so fast you little worm, I'm going to make you walk to hell and back for what you did to my puppet!" Sasori threatened, picking up the blonde by the front of his shirt. "Funny, because that's exactly what I was planning on doing anyways, to get out of this stupid organization un!" The blonde growled, trying to squirm out of the puppeteer's iron grip. "And stop calling me brat! I do have a name you know!"

"And what pray tell is that?" Sasori glared, dropping the blonde with a 'thump' onto the ground. "You know, you can't just get out of Akatsuki once you're in, and how in the name of Suna did you think that by blowing up one of my puppets will help you achieve that?!"

"It's Deidara, and the last part-" Deidara never got to finish that sentence because said blonde was already running out the door and down the hall, before the red-head could even blink. And blink he did, for when Sasori realized that he dropped the blonde, Deidara was half-way down the stairs, and still running to who knows where.

"Oh! Deidara-senpai! Where are you going in a such a hurry?" Tobi asked, as Deidara rushed past him, almost knocking Tobi off his feet. "Can't talk. Must run. Hell's after me!" Deidara yelled behind him. "Hell? How can hell be after you Deidara-senpai? Tobi is confused." Tobi mumbled to himself, starting to run after him. "Oh…THAT hell…" Tobi said to himself, seeing the puppeteer run past him, hot on the blonde's trail.

"Must be playing a game of tag." Tobi giggled. "Have fun you tow! Tobi's going to see Zetsu-san now! See ya!" He shouted after the two artists.

Deidara ran full speed ahead, not looking where he was headed, and ultimately ending up lost. Yet again. For the second time that day. Sasori smirked, realizing just where they were. A malicious smile creped its way across his face, when Deidara turned around, ready to ask the infamous question of "Where are we?" Instead he asked a different question.

"Wh-what a-are yo-you staring at me li-like that for Sasori-san?" Deidara stuttered, backing up slowly. _Hehehe…Now I've got you right where I want you, you annoying brat._ Thought Sasori, slowly advancing towards the blonde, like a predator stalking it's prey, making the blode unknowingly back up into the many rooms found in the basement. "Sa-Sasori-san, you're re-really scaring me un…"

Once Deidara was in the room, Sasori quickly turned around, slammed the door shut, and locked it with an ominous click. "Sasori! Let me out!!! What do you think you're doing?!" Desperate cries of help were heard from the other side of the door. But by deaf ears, as the body to which the were attached to, made its way back down the hallway to which it came. Problem solved The puppeteer sadistically thought. "Goodnight you brat." Sasori said to no one in particular, humming a calming tune while he pulled the blankets up over his body and began drifting off to a peaceful sleep.


End file.
